Referring to FIGS. 9 to 10, a conventional ball feeding device is shown and includes a mounting seat 10. A driving device 101 is mounted in mounting seat 10 and includes a driving shaft 102 having an upper end protruded out of a top plate 103 of the mounting seat 10. A rotary unit is connected to driving shaft 102 to rotate therewith and includes a plurality of lower tubes 20 arranged in a circle. Each lower tube 20 includes a lower slot 202 and a through-hole 201 for receiving a ball 60. An upper tube 30 is coupled to an upper end of each lower tube 20 and includes an upper slot 302 and a through-hole 301 for receiving another ball 60. The lower and upper slots 202 and 302 of each lower tube 20 and an associated upper tube 30 are communicated with each other and form a cruciform slot. A sleeve 50 is coupled to an upper end of each upper tube 30 for containing a supply of balls 60. The top plate 103 of the mounting seat 10 is provided with a discharge hole 104 and a riser 105. A baffle plate 40 is engaged to an upper end of the riser 105 and extended into one of the cruciform slots. By rotating the driving device 101, the rotary unit is rotated so that the ball 60 in the lower tube 20 in alignment with the discharge hole 104 falls down into a pitching machine (not shown) via the discharge hole 104, with the ball 60 in the upper tube 30 in alignment with the discharge hole 104 being stopped by the baffle plate 40 and, thus, prevented from dropping into the discharge hole 104. Hence, the balls 60 in the lower tubes 20 can be fed into the pitching machine one by one during rotation of the driving shaft 102.
However, the conventional ball feeding device is operated in such a manner that the balls 60 in the lower tubes 20 are in contact with the top plate 103 of the mounting seat 10, causing friction between the balls 60 and top plate 103 of the mounting seat 10 and damage to the balls 60 and the driving device 101. To avoid excessive frictional resistance between the balls 60 and top plate 103 of the mounting seat 10, some restrictions are placed on the weight and quality of the balls 60 so that the conventional ball feeding device cannot be widely applied to different kinds of balls and pitching machines.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in the prior art.